Archives For carmakers

An interesting article about the future of car manufacturing and production following the Chicago Auto Show.

We may all soon be driving cars that are increasingly built on shared platforms.

This revolution of the car business is being spear-headed by Volkswagen — which invested some $70 billion in its MQB program.

Other automakers are studying this and may follow suit. That’s because of the cost savings and increased profits are too much to ignore.

For instance, VW is expected to report a record profit of $30 billion from last year in part as a result of their new mega-platform strategy. This is great news for all the major automotive companies — but there is a huge potential downside if/when there’s a vehicle recall.

And what about consumers buying various models of cars and basically getting the same one their neighbor got but with a different badge and perhaps a wildly higher price tag?

Read more about Volkswagen’s “Holy Grail” from the Chicago Tribune here.

One of the more interesting ideas we’ve encountered recently as relates to the car of the future.

It may resemble one from the past.

That is, as carmakers were once divided into engine/chassis builders and coachwork companies, they may well find themselves in a similar situation years from now.

According to a writer from Jalopnik, “massive platform simplification by automobile companies, the widespread adoption of full drive-by-wire systems, and the rise of large-scale rapid-prototyping technology” will provide the impetus for the birth of new coachwork enterprises. Or maybe it’s more likely that the big OEs will simply have new coachwork subsidiaries.

Of course, if this were to occur then you may see other automotive-related companies, perhaps even one like Directed or any other number of similarly positioned entities, launching their own cabin specialists with their specific technologies already embedded.

It would revolutionize the aftermarket.

A tantalizing thought!

Read more about the Downton Abbey-style predictions from Jalopnik here.